City Description
by Hicranum
Summary: Accompanies Requite and hopefully makes it a little easier to grasp the setting.


**City Description  
**

This is for "Requite"...if you've just stumbled here, well...go check it out?

A somewhat detailed description of the city structure of Amin-fär. Because it doesn't make much sense from the story alone. And it still probably won't.

So, basically, Amin-fär is an underground cavern. The only opening to the sky is a small (like...15 - 20 feet wide) hole in the highest point of the cavern roof, near the main temple (section F), through which the river on the surface above plummets nearly 400 feet. Here, in the basin of the cavern, the water forms a great lake, much longer than it is wide. The lake doesn't cover all of the basin; a stream trickles to the bottom right corner of the city, into the wall, much like the mysterious stream you see in the fishing pond in Ocarina of Time. Why does it work? It doesn't matter! Accept it! In this way, the city doesn't drown, and there's even room on the shores for a little bazaar/marketplace on weekends, and a shrine, and a park near the waterfall where sunlight is abundant, and pretty things of that nature.

The basin is in a trapezoidal shape; the front (F) and back (B) are parallel to each other while the two sides (L and R - aren't my designations original?) widen symmetrically from back to front - that is, F is wider than B. The cieling is highest near side F, where the waterfall is. By the time you get to side B, there's only a 70-ish-foot clearance, allowing for four terraced levels of government buildings and such.

Side F is almost completely sheer, going up nearly 400 feet. The Palaese (puh-lay-shuh) is carved into this cliff wall, and behind the wall classrooms, training rooms, and exercise and social areas expand upwards through all seven levels, or 180 feet. Above these is the main temple of Amin-fär, which one can see plainly - it's not hidden in the cliff wall like the Palaese. So yeah. It's way high up there.

The sides (L and R) rise up in graduated terraces. It's like different levels of the city; instead of buroughs there are terraces. So, for example, Terrace 5R, where Sheik lives. R designates it as the right side, if you're looking toward the main temple; his terrace is the 5th from the bottom. From there it gets more specific to make finding stuff easier, but that's not really important for the story and I'm not going to make it up unless I'm absolutely forced to.

That sounds simple enough, no? Now for complications. There are seven terraces, and each level up has about a ten-foot promenade which fronts the buildings. So, again with Sheik's townhouse: his terrace is only two stories (18 feet, here) high. Since his house is only two stories high, this means that directly above his house is the promenade of the level 6 terrace. Instead of a roof there's the sidewalk of the next level.

To make anyone reading this even more miserable, the terraces aren't necessarily uniform. That is, they aren't all 18 feet tall, like Sheik's. The one above him has a block height of 36 feet, or four stories. The one above that is back to two stories. That specifically isn't important; just know that the block heights aren't all the same.

I hope that makes some semblance of sense. There are transport mechanisms scattered around (ok, they're not scattered, they're carefully placed) similar to what you see in the Water Temple - little platforms that mysteriously travel up or down. And make that cool clicky noise. But they don't do that in Amin-fär, it'd probably be too echo-y.

Also, the light supplied by the sun and the moon isn't that much, given the small space for it to enter. Good thing the citizens are well-versed in magic - they just whip up little glowing orbs where we would have light bulbs. The city government standardizes the outside lights - you can't just have magic glowy orbs all over the place - in both color and placement. Restaurants, shops, even homeowners can request different sizes, schemes, and colors; unless it's outlandish the city complies and sends up a team (because it's a bureaucracy, after all!).

Umm...yep. That's about it. If there's anything anyone wants cleared up, just let me know.


End file.
